The present invention relates to a method for processing a silver halide photosensitive material, characterized by conducting the process in the presence of an N-oxide compound having at least one mercapto group in the molecule.
The processing of the silver halide color photosensitive material usually comprises a color developing step and a desilverization step. Silver formed by the development is oxidized with a bleaching agent and then dissolved with a fixing agent. An iron (III) ion complex salt such as an aminopolycarboxylic acid/iron (III) complex salt is mainly used as the bleaching agent and a thiosulfate is usually used as the fixing agent.
On the other hand, the processing of a black-and-white photosensitive material comprises a development step and a step for removing an unexposed silver halide. In this process, the photosensitive material is fixed without bleaching after the development unlike the processing of the color photosensitive material. Also in this case, a thiosulfate is usually used as the fixing agent.
As replenishers are recently being reduced in amount, a stable composition is required of each replenisher. As for a fixing bath, a sulfite is added as an antioxidative preservative to this bath in most cases, since the thiosulfate usually used is oxidized, deteriorated and sulfided to form a precipitate. Although further improvement in the stability of the liquids is desired as the reduction in amount of the replenishers is accelerated, the problems of the solubility and the formation of sodium sulfate precipitate formed by the oxidation of a sulfite are posed by increasing the amount of the sulfite to be added.
In addition, finding of a compound having a fixability higher than that of the thiosulfate is demanded from the viewpoint of acceleration. Under these circumstances, development of a fixing agent having excellent resistance to oxidation and fixability and usable as a substitute for the thiosulfates is demanded. However, no compound usable as an excellent substitute has been found yet.
As for the N-oxide compounds used in the present invention, for example, Japanese Patent Unexamined Published Application (hereinafter referred to as "J.P. KOKAI") No. Sho 61-32845 discloses that when an N-oxide compound is added to a developer, release of a photographic reagent is accelerated, U.S. Pat. No. 3,330,658 discloses that they are used as a color tone improver in diffusion transfer, and French patent No. 2,015,455 discloses that when an N-oxide compound is added to a silver halide emulsion, it exhibits an antifogging effect. However, the use of the N-oxide compounds as a solvent for silver halides and the use thereof in a fixing bath according to the present invention are novel and cannot be easily inferred from the above-described prior art.